Iran has proposed transferring its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 per cent to a third party as part of its latest plan to break the diplomatic deadlock with the US, sources familiar with Tehran's position told The National.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that his country conveyed to the US through Qatar a concrete seven-day plan aimed at resolving the stand-off over the Strait of Hormuz, with the waterway expected to reopen on the sixth day if the agreed steps are implemented.
The seven-day timetable would begin as soon as Washington accepts the plan, he said at the UN. “If the necessary conditions are met, the strait could be reopened," adding that “the choice now is with the US”.
The proposal, one source said, envisages a phased process in which the stockpile would first be diluted before being transferred out of Iran under mechanisms recognised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The third-party transfer goes beyond Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's public comments this week that Tehran was prepared to dilute its 60 per cent enriched uranium and submit the process to verification.
The mechanism revives and expands an idea discussed during earlier negotiations mediated by Oman and, the source said, shortly before the war began on February 28.
The offer forms part of a broader Iranian road map presented to Washington in New York that seeks to resolve the immediate confrontation and reopen the Strait of Hormuz before negotiations resume over Iran's nuclear programme and other outstanding issues.
Iran wants Washington to take concrete steps before Tehran fully reopens the Strait of Hormuz, reversing the sequence in previous negotiations, where agreements were negotiated first and implemented afterwards. Washington, however, wants Iran to reopen the strategic waterway first, one source said.
The disagreement over sequencing has emerged as the principal obstacle to implementing Tehran's road map.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed in New York that Tehran had presented Washington with a proposal under which the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within seven days if certain conditions were met, followed by a resumption of negotiations. He said the conditions were largely based on commitments contained in the June memorandum of understanding between the two countries.
But sources familiar with Tehran's position said the latest plan changes the order in which those commitments would be implemented.
Rather than first entering negotiations and then carrying out an agreement, Tehran wants Washington to implement its obligations before Iran reopens the strait. Broader negotiations, including over the nuclear programme, would follow.
The Iranian conditions include a definitive halt to military operations, including attacks on Iran and hostilities on other regional fronts; an end to what Tehran describes as an economic war; the lifting of the maritime blockade; and the release of frozen Iranian assets, the sources said.
A cessation of hostilities in Lebanon also remains central to the proposal and Tehran now treats it as a prerequisite for reopening Hormuz, according to one source, adding that Iran "may extend the same principle to the conflict in Yemen".
Public Iranian statements have increasingly made clear that Tehran expects Washington to act first. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said this week that Iran had transmitted its conditions through mediators and that there would be no negotiations or reopening of Hormuz until they were accepted.
One source said that position "reflected a broader consensus among Iran's senior leadership that promises from Washington were no longer sufficient and that the US would have to demonstrate its intentions through action".
The seven-day timeframe is particularly significant, the source said, warning that "if the current diplomatic effort failed to produce a positive result by the end of that period, military operations could resume". The source did not elaborate further on the issue.
Mr Araghchi has said the seven-day countdown would begin after Washington "accepted" the Iranian proposal. Tehran is still waiting for an American response.
"The Iranians view the meetings in New York as potentially the last flexible opportunity to reach a diplomatic solution," according to one source.
